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STEM Week

This year we are organising termly 'enrichment weeks' as part of our curriculum. Previously these have been tri-annual events. This week we have held our very first STEM Week (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). What a fun packed learning week it has been. The week has been supported by Wyvern's Science Department and staff from IBM, a huge thank you to both of these organisations for supporting our STEM week. Our Book Week and Arts Week will follow in the Spring and Summer Terms.

Year R

In STEM week we have been learning about different fixings and how to join materials in different ways. At the beginning of the week we looked at a variety of bags and talked about the many different ways they can be joined together e.g. stitched, glued, Velcro, stapled. We then all made a “Treasure” bag and chose how to join it together including how to fix a handle. On Thursday we went on a Nature walk around our campus searching for natural treasures. We found so many different kinds of autumn coloured leaves, terrific twigs and other interesting objects. We are using these items to decorate our bag and of course keep some of our treasures safe inside. Thank you to the grown ups who helped on our walk. It was a lovely autumn day.

In Maths we used our leaves and twigs to learn about sorting e.g. by size, colour, shape. We also used these objects to add two groups together and find the total by counting them all.

Thank you for the wonderful celebration photographs we have received so far. If your child has not brought their photos in please do so on Monday. It is helpful to label the child’s name, age, and a brief description of which celebration it is on the back of each photo. We look forward to sharing them next week in our learning.

We still urgently need a volunteer to play the piano during our Christmas performances. Please see your child’s teacher if you can help.

Year 1

What a busy week we have had! We have had great fun in STEM week, using the lighthouse keeper’s lunch as our focus.

We have been investigating how to make the lighthouse light up by creating electrical circuits using wires, a battery and a blub.

Each class has engineered a pulley system to move the basket from the house to the lighthouse and then had a go at creating it using bulldog clips and string.

The children have worked in groups of 3 to recreate the scene from the Lighthouse Keepers Lunch, building a lighthouse and a cottage and solving each problem they have come across to put it all together. The children have been showing all of our school values whilst completing this and the Year One teachers are all really impressed how well the children have solved problems and created the project.

If you haven’t already received your child’s Maths Pack or if you have any questions, please come and speak to your child’s teacher.

Year 2

STEM week in Year 2 has been all about flight. We have had a fun packed week investigating different aspects of this exploring wind resistance using paper aeroplanes, buggies and rockets. The children worked effectively in groups of three with our school values very much in evidence. The groups of three were working respectfully, creatively and collaboratively!

“He needed help and he asked me really politely” Luke

“She said she couldn’t do the folding in half so I helped her” Jennifer

The children were keen to talk about their learning, explaining what they were changing to make their aeroplane travel further after doing a test flight.

“We are changing the wings to make them bigger so the big wings make the plane go faster” Darren, Ava, Maia

“We changed the side bits to make them longer” Olivia, Charlotte, Logan

The children investigated the properties of different materials by making different sails for a buggy and then testing each one, making sure the test was fair and that they measured accurately.